Disassembling the Invincible Iron Man

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Matt Fraction sheds light on "Stark Disassembled", the next story arc in Invincible Iron Man.

By Jesse Schedeen

Anyone who reads Invincible Iron Man these is hard-pressed not to worry about the continued health and well-being of Tony Stark. The beleaguered hero has lost his empire and his reputation. Since the beginning of "World's Most Wanted" last year, Stark as been on the run from Norman Osborn and HAMMER. With limited resources and dwindling mental faculties, Stark is backed into a corner he may not be able to extract himself from.

Given the sorry state of Stark, many are beginning to wonder if the hero will be alive after the conclusion of "World's Most Wanted". And while we can't say whether or not he will survive Dark Reign, we can at least confirm Invincible Iron Man will continue on. At Chicago Comic-Con this weekend, Marvel revealed the first details of "Stark Disassembled", the next story arc after "World's Most Wanted". A wide range of characters will be appearing in Invincible Iron Man #20. Whether they're present to mourn the loss of Tony Stark or celebrate his unexpected victory over Osborn is anyone's guess at this point.

We called up writer Matt Fraction for answers, and barring that, at least a few clues as to the book's future. Naturally, Fraction wasn't able to say much as to Tony's fate, but he did provide some information about "Stark Disassembled" and the general course of the series over the next few months. At the very least, expect things to get even worse before they stand a chance of getting better.

IGN Comics: I'm curious why you're calling this new arc "Stark Disassembled" when the current storyline is doing a pretty good job of tearing him down already.

Fraction: Well, you haven't seen how it ends yet. Without giving away how "World's Most Wanted" ends, I think that explains it. If "World's Most Wanted" is about hunting and reducing Tony down to his absolute core, and stripping away everything in his life that made him a superhero, "Disassembled" is about how he finds himself and what comes next. All of the king's horses and all of the king's men trying to put Humpty back together again when Humpty maybe doesn't want to come back together again. Assuming, you know, Humpty is even alive.

IGN Comics: Should readers be bracing themselves for the possibility that he's not going to make it out of "World's Most Wanted" alive?

Fraction: People should be bracing themselves. I don't want to say for what, but Tony set out to run this race, and he's going to do it.

IGN Comics: In talking before, you sort of indicated that Tony doesn't really have any plans in his mind beyond deleting his mind and evading Osborn. Once this is over does that immediately change for him, or does he have to take stock and decide just what he plans on doing next?

Fraction: You're assuming he'd be capable of deciding what he does next. At the end of "World's Most Wanted", we've never seen Tony like we're going to see him. As a story, it's almost more about Tony reassembling, but that just doesn't sound as cool. [laughs]

IGN Comics: The description for this arc says Tony's greatest friends gather together. Are you going to be bringing some new faces into the book?

Fraction: Some folks we haven't seen in a while. Some folks you just haven't seen at all in this book. A couple folks. Vigils have a way of bringing people out of the woodwork.

IGN Comics: Is that how you'd describe the story – a vigil for Tony Stark?

Fraction: Maybe so...

IGN Comics: Can you say whether Maria and Pepper are still going to play a major role?

Fraction: I can't say.

IGN Comics: Tony's in one of the worst spots in his life right now...

Fraction: Oh, it just gets worse from here. You haven't even seen how bad it gets. Issues #16, 17, and 18 – things just rapidly accelerate.

IGN Comics: And issue #19 is the conclusion, correct?

Fraction: Yes.

IGN Comics: And even though Tony's in such a sorry state, you've still allowed him the chance to hop in bed with Maria and Pepper in the past couple months.

Fraction: With Maria we saw, but with Pepper, I think that's your inference. You're making the inference there. Not that I particularly disagree with you. With Maria it was pretty explicit. But with Pepper, there's room to view it differently. We don't quite know what happened that night.

IGN Comics: Gotcha. Well, if noting else, he's had some sort of romantic entanglement with both of them in the recent past.

Fraction: Let me ask you this – what if Tony didn't remember sleeping with Maria when he slept with Pepper? And what happens when both of them remember and it comes out?

IGN Comics: That's basically what I'm driving at. Is this something he's going to have to deal with, assuming he still has the brain capacity left to deal with it when the time comes?

Fraction: Someone will probably have to deal with it.

IGN Comics: Since you said there are some new faces coming into the book, are we going to start seeing the Avengers react to what's been going on with Tony?

Fraction: It will be impossible for the Avengers not to react to the end of "World's Most Wanted".

IGN Comics: At San Diego, Joe Quesada basically said Dark Reign will come to a close around the end of this year and the beginning of next. Does "Stark Disassembled" somehow play into whatever fallout there is at the end of Dark Reign?

Fraction: By the time we get through "World's Most Wanted" and get into "Stark Disassembled", Norman has sort of had his way with Tony and moved onto other targets.

IGN Comics: And it sounds like this arc is setting the stage for some big plans in 2010. Is this sort of a fresh start for the book, or are you still going to be building on the stories that have come already?

Fraction: There's still a master plan. There's a road map. It's all heading in the direction I wanted to head in when I pitched the book. This is all part of the map.

IGN Comics: I also had a few questions I wanted to ask about issue #16 and the rest of "World's Most Wanted".

Fraction: Oh, sure.

IGN Comics: At the end of #16, Tony seemed pretty guilty that he had to leave Pepper behind to fend for herself. Is that guilt going to weigh on him as he continues his mission, or is this another case where his brain is so fried he won't even remember it?

Fraction: Yeah, hopefully he won't remember it for long. He let his best friend throw herself under the bud for him. He's going to carry that.

IGN Comics: It seems like there's a kind of parallel between what Tony and Maria are going through with her still suffering from her encounter with the Controller. Are you trying to break her down in the same way you've been breaking Tony down?

Fraction: Not in the same way. I just wanted to see Maria in a place we've never seen her before. I wanted to push her to the end of her limits as well. Everybody in our core cast is going through this kind of thing in the story together. Everybody's going to be pushed to their breaking point.

IGN Comics: I believe you said at San Diego that this arc is going to come down to a fight between Iron Man and Iron Patriot.

Fraction: Sort of, yeah.

IGN Comics: Given the state of Tony now, is that actually going to be a physical fight?

Fraction: If it is, it will be a little one-sided. We've been building to this for a while, and I think you'll love it. No one wants to see Tony and Norman face off mano y mano quite as badly as I do.

IGN Comics: In issue #16 there was a scene where Norman was tinkering with his armor and getting frustrated. Is that a sign that, because he stole this tech from Tony, he doesn't truly understand it?

Fraction: That's not even a sign. Osborn is no Tony Stark. It reminds us partially why he's so interested in Pepper. Pepper's got an even newer suit than he does with newer technology and a giant repulsor battery in her chest. It's a momentary reminder that there's a lot more going on here than just Norman wanting to get his hands on a database. The full Stark knowledge base, if you will, is paramount. Osborn's interest in Tony isn't just "I want to know the list", it's "I want to know how to be you. I want to know how repulsors work. I want the Iron Patriot suit to be powered by pure Stark tech and not this workaround tech I've had to install."

IGN Comics: So is that the one real asset Tony has going into this final battle with Osborn, that he understands the armor and Osborn doesn't?

Fraction: Exactly, exactly. This is Tony Stark. You've got a lot of pretenders to the throne, but nobody else out there is Tony Stark. This storyline has been about rediscovering and reminding ourselves who Tony is and what makes him so good. Coming into "Stark Disassembled", we're going to see it even more.

IGN Comics: Is there anything else you want to add, either about "Stark Disassembled or "World's Most Wanted"?

Fraction: I've been resisting writing #19 for a while. [laughs] It's a big ending and a big payoff, and it's got to be done right. And then starting with "Disassembled" and #20, we've got a new trade dress put together by Ryan Hughes that is absolutely amazing. Iron Man is finally going to look like a book about a futurist instead of a book about a guy who thinks in science fiction all the time. Be ready for that. I couldn't be more excited for how the book physically is going to look. It's going to jump off the page.

IGN Comics: Does that go for the interior art as well as the cover?

Fraction: Oh, of course. No doubt. Salvador is a master. But now we're finally going to have a book that looks like what it is.